Apologies if you saw nothing under this heading! The vagaries of the website chose not to show it until I updated it! Here is what should have been here!

I went down to the plot to plant my winter cauliflowers. I have had to pot on the plants I bought from the Trading Hut frames as I still had crops to harvest and lift from my Brassica tunnel. I am taking a risk planting a second crop of brassicas in the same place as I may get clubroot. However, I am using plenty of lime in each plants' hole in the hope it will prevent it.

With four different sets of 5 plants I hope it will give a succession of crops throughout the winter. In the end I managed to plant just half the plants and have two more rows to plant another day.I did manage to sow a row of carrots. I bought a packet of stump rooted (Early Scarlet Horn) carrots half price (most shops are selling seed packets half price at the moment) so I put in a row in the hope they grow enough before it gets too cold. (Bob Flowerdew says sowing an early stump rooted carrot works if sown now.)

Something was nibbling at my sweetcorn and I had 3 cobs spoiled. I harvested 4 cobs giving two to a neighbour and taking two home.

My outdoor cucumbers are producing, especially the pickling ones. I picked over a dozen to take home. As I was collecting them I noticed one sweetcorn plant shaking peculiarly. As I approached it a rat peered out at me as he climbed over one of the nibbled cobs. I clapped and he disappeared but I looked out my rat traps and will set them tomorrow.

I also tied up my autumn raspberries, well those cropping anyway. I should have done it months ago but a couple of ropes, one each side, will hold them up off the ground until the end of the season and I will try to do it earlier next year. The summer fruiting raspberries can be pruned back now. Remove the brown stems as they have cropped this year and tie in the green stalks to fruit next year. (I will do mine in the next week or two.) Autumn raspberries should be cut down completely later in the year.

I also lifted my Sturon onion sets planted out last autumn. Normally I leave them lying on the ground to dry out but with the current wet weather I took them home to dry in my growhouse. The wire grid shelves are great for standing them upside down with their necks poking down through the grids and the plastic cover zipped partway down. Then the sun heats them up and the air can get round them for best drying conditions. They are so wet though, I don't expect they will store well.

After arriving late with my trailer to help the other committee members fill the skip with rubbish left on vacant plots, I went onto the plot to clean up the brassica tunnel. Yesterday's harvesting had left a couple of stumps and quite a few discarded cabbage leaves in addition to the heaps of weeds I had left trying to sort out what needed harvesting. Scraping the debris towards the doorway revealed that there were lots of weeds still growing amongst the remaining plants.

So I went for my hoe even though it was rather wet after the morning's rain. Hoeing normally only works well when the seedling weeds dry out in the sun but I was planning to rake everything out anyway. It took quite a while but there was a huge pile of green stuff that took 3 or 4 trips to the compost heap using my fork as a pitchfork, equivalent to at least 2 barrow loads.

Oh! And I finally remembered to tie my two tomato plants up to their stakes in the glassless greenhouse frame.

I went home without harvesting anything via the tip to empty the trailer of non-compostables collected from home!

Today I was offered help with harvesting from my wife and the grand children. This meant that I could think of making progress with sowing. It is a bit late to be sowing crops but with luck I might get a late harvest if the weather cooperates. With thunderstorms forecast my seeds should be well watered at least at the start. I sowed a last row of early peas as they mature quicker than main-crops. I also sowed a row of early carrots (Early Nantes) for the same reason. Alongside them I sowed a row of swedes which I wish I had sown last month and my first row this year of turnips. It's a bit late for turnips but I would like to have some so it is worth a try. Meanwhile the family picked a huge collection of huge bags of crops. My runner and French beans have finally started producing in bulk, and there were 4 cauliflowers to cut. I also cut a very large red cabbage together with a medium sized green cabbage for them to take. They also got a small crop of the earliest autumn raspberries. When the children got bored we sent them to the brambles alongside the entry track to collect blackberries but they returned rather quickly with very few. I thought it was because they were put off by the spines but it transpired that someone had been there already and we only doubled their collection on the way out because we could reach higher. After they had departed I eased the spring planted onion sets loose to help them ripen and dug up the beetroot alongside them. Some of them were very small and could have been left but some were huge and probably will only be good for juicing. Finally I covered the newly sown peas with a net tunnel after a dose of slug bait and a sprinkling of paraffin to keep the mice off, before scattering a few handfuls of chicken manure along the peas I sowed last month. I scooped up a number of piles of weeds onto the compost heap before going home for a very late lunch.

Well almost! Yesterday's rain kept me away but today I went down in the morning to start work. There was much to harvest but I was keen to move on in preparing for the autumn and winter.I have two short rows of leek seedlings that needed transplanting. I already have a row of leeks bought from the Trading Hut and growing strongly but my own seeds took longer to grow to a reasonable size but are ready to move on. There were enough seedlings for a row of my Tornado leeks for 'autumn' harvest. Mine are so late that I don't think will harvest them until later in the year, perhaps even early next year.The second row was of 'Musselburgh', the old favourite. I had an abundance of seedlings, more than enough for the single row I have room for - so my neighbour benefited from some free seedlings. That's better than throwing them in the compost!

Next I wanted to stake my row of peas that had grown to fill the net tunnel I used to protect the seedlings from the pigeons. The first step is to thoroughly weed the row as from experience I know that weeding later is very difficult from under the netting. Then I brought out my roll of chainlink fencing about 30 inches high and stretched it along the row before using canes to set it on edge for the peas to climb up. Unfortunately the peas had grown so tall they flopped on the ground so I then had to run a string along the row 'blanket stitched' onto the netting to keep the plants upright. Then I needed to move the water pipe hoops over from the row of exhausted peas and banged them into the soil, one at each end and one in the middle. Finally I had to untangle the netting and stretch it over the hoops and peg it down.

Having done that it was very late for lunch so there was not time to do any harvesting. I went home intending to get help from the family to harvest later in the afternoon. However the rain meant that that did not happen!

I am not a great advocate of growing for show. I just want to be able to take home as much as I can to enjoy at the dinner table. However, as one of the committee I feel duty bound to support the annual Summer Show. So I decided I would harvest as normal for the table and then offer whatever I had - if it was within the rules.I therefore harvested as normal on the Wednesday and Friday before the show.The shallots I dug up on Wednesday were reasonable. One plant produced only three shallots but they were a really good size so I put them aside after removing the outer loose skins.

I dug out the rest of the row of Kestrel potatoes and a plant or two of the Charlotte, King Edward and Sarpo Mira. The Sarpo Mira foliage is still green and flourishing so the tubers are probably still swelling but they are very scabby so they weren't suitable for showing. The foliage on the others has already died back so they should be dug out as soon as possible, otherwise the slugs will have a field day.

Back home I found three good tubers of Charlotte but all the others had purple colouring round the eyes so I didn't know whether they were whites or reds!I also dug out most of my onions as they were ready to harvest. However, when I tried to take off the outer split skins I got down to patches of white or red flesh; not within the class description in the schedule!

On the Friday I harvested my first real pickings of Runner Beans and got half a carrier bag full. I then picked over the row of French Beans and got a good load to take home. I also harvested a few Beetroot that were roughly tennis ball size, leaving the two or three huge ones for another day as they are probably too tough to eat - Beetroot juice?Then I realised the carrots next to the beetroot, that have been growing steadily under the fleece tunnel (to keep out the Carrot Fly) were ready. Since they store well I decided to dig out the whole row to leave room for a late sowing of beetroot or turnips. When they came out of the soil I thought one or two might be good enough to show.

At home on Friday evening I checked over the crops and sorted out those that were reasonable, assuming that most would be bettered by the experts amongst the other allotmenteers. When I checked online what to do with the onions I discovered that I should have lifted them several weeks ago to ripen them so put them to one side in the garage.

At the show, having just selected specimens to show from my normal cropping I was very surprised, and a little embarrassed, to find that 5 of my 6 entries were prizewinners.

My intention to enter ordinary (non-prizewinning) specimens to encourage others to show normal crops may have backfired - unless you, having read this, are wont to try next year.I hope you do!

I cannot believe that I have not posted since 12th July. I have an excuse for the first week as I went on a trip to Paris with the family but after that...........Oh yes! I fell out of a tree - well off a low branch, (supervising grandchildren has many risks!) - and damaged a finger on my right hand, making all the ordinary tasks very awkward, especially as I was organising a bit of a do to celebrate my Golden Wedding! And, as I said in a previous post, with the light evenings I find I cannot settle to the computer until late, and then it is time for bed!I will have to make do with a status report as I cannot remember the details of my visits down to the plot, even though there weren't many.

My Runner beans have finally grown to the top of the frame and have begun to produce crops. On the other side of the plot the climbing French Beans, Cobra, do not look pretty with twisted stems and coarse, lumpy leaves, they have already sstarted cropping even though not much more than halfway up the canes.

In the first section I have had a couple of cuttings from the row of Swiss Chard but the row of Spinach I sowed has produced absolutely nothing - no plants at all -old seed? The leeks from the Trading Hut are well established and growing well and my own sowings are only now big enough to transplant. Hopefully I will get a succession at harvest during next winter.The summer Raspberries have given me a small scattered crop enjoyed by my grand daughter as it was not worth picking. They are growing strongly after being planted this spring so promise well for next year. The autumn Raspberries are looking good for later but need tying in.

Then in the second section I have planted my sweet corn, 30 plants in a 5x6 block on one side with 4 butternut squash plants and on the other side I have planted 3 pumpkin plants and 5 cucumber plants which are just showing the small young fruits. The sweet corn bed was planted in a bed where I had a winter green manure of Ryegrass and the pumpkins and cucumbers in a bed that was covered in a mulch of horse litter and were planted in patches scraped in the mulch into soil that had remained lovely and moist.

In the third section, separated by my newly established aparagus bed and very productive strawberry bed, I have recently sown a row of peas and on the other side of the path, stripped the row of mature peas of a batch of lovely sweet peas with the help of my grand children. There is room for a final sowing of early peas to mature in the autumn.

In the fourth section I have the Brassica net tunnels containing my cauliflowers in the left one. Here the Savoy and summer Cabbages are finally hearting up. O the right side I have planted Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli and Kale so the tunnel is full of well-spaced plants.

In the fifth section are my potatoes. I have already lifted all the early Pentland Javelin and have eaten most of them. Beyond the 'Kestrel' and 'Charlotte' I mixed the 'King Edwards' rows in with the Blight resistant 'Sarpo Mira' to help them avoid being infected. Not a real test this year given that, as last year, we have had so little Blight. All but the 'Sarpo Mira' have died back and can be dug out before the slugs get to work.

Beyond there my rhubarb is almost overwhelmed with the weed goose grass. In the glassless greenhouse the two 'Crimson Crush' Tomato plants are flourishing despite me neglecting them something rotten! I've already had a couple of fruits which tasted delicious sliced into a salad. Blight resistance and good taste promises much!

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Hi! As "Webmaster" for this site I feel a bit of a fraud. I am neither an expert at IT nor at growing vegetables. I do enjoy playing at both, however.I have a 10 rod plot in the middle of the site, having transferred in 2012 from a 5 rod plot I had been cultivating for about 5 years. I needed to give myself space to grow a wider range of crops.I will be recording my thoughts and activities on the allotment as well as sharing any knowledge and information I gain in my 'travels'.I constantly seek hints and advice from my neighbouring, and usually more knowledgeable, plot holders and will pass on anything I think is of general use via this blog.